Rams Players Help Out : Schools to Launch Anti-Drug Course

What would the Los Angeles Rams rather tackle than the San Francisco 49ers?

Youth drug problems.

The team has joined with Alta-Dena Certified Dairy in sponsoring a drug awareness program to educate sixth- and ninth-graders about the realities of drug use before it becomes a problem.

The C.E. Mendez Foundation has just completed instructing teachers so that they can return to their classrooms in Anaheim, Santa Ana, Pomona and Claremont and effectively tell their students that drugs are dangerous and why. Students from the cooperating districts will take the course once a week for 18 weeks, beginning this spring.

A similar program to educate parents is being started by the foundation.

Sports Figures to Give Assistance

And when not at school or at home, the students will have their sports heroes reinforcing the anti-drug message, as well.

“All NFL (National Football League) players are role models for kids,” said Lee Knieriemen, associate director of the Tampa-based foundation, at a press conference held Wednesday at Rams Park in Anaheim.

“Kids will listen to football players, and that’s the kind of community message kids can really hook into,” she said.

Foundation staff members, in working with sixth- and ninth-grade teachers in the four cities, taught them techniques for presenting the information about drug abuse that would make it stick.

Make it practical, yet fun, they suggested. And when looking for role models, steer clear of reformed drug users.

“ ‘Do as I say, not as I do’ has never worked very well,” Knieriemen said, adding “We’re hitting a target group at a high-risk time.”

Rams Volunteers

Rams quarterback Jeff Kemp, linebacker George Andrews, defensive end Gary Jeter and running back Mike Guman have volunteered to supplement classroom work by visiting the students and offering them advice on how to stay straight.

“It’s important. That’s the main point--prevention, not a care unit afterward,” Guman said.

Players from six NFL teams, which were not identified, will participate in other Mendez-administered drug programs around the nation. If the project proves successful, other NFL owners will be asked to participate, Knieriemen said.

So far, 10 schools in Anaheim, 9 in Santa Ana, 6 in Claremont and 4 in Pomona are taking part.

“We’re hoping for a groundswell of support, to have other districts say, ‘Hey, we want that in our schools,’ ” said Rams spokesman Marshall Klein.

Rams owner Georgia Frontiere said she decided to get herself and the team involved because she was “appalled” that youngsters were “taking chemicals they don’t even know about in fourth, fifth, and sixth grades.”

“The Mendez Foundation has shown us that it’s all right to say no, and to that we say amen,” she said.